Pope Francis said in the first peace message of his pontificate that huge salaries and bonuses are symptoms of an economy based on greed and inequality and called again for nations to narrow the wealth gap.

He attacked the "widening gap between those who have more and those who must be content with the crumbs", calling on governments to implement "effective policies" to guarantee people's fundamental rights, including access to capital, services, educational resources, healthcare and technology.

Until the Catholic Church starts giving back the wealth it acquired through centuries of corruption and intrigue, and embraces the simplicity and humility it demands of its members, the Pope can go fly a kite.

If he thinks inequalities are a big problem in free market societies, then he should see what they look like in North Korea. I wonder where you will find more people inclined to Christian charity? Some capitalist country like the United States used to be? Or his own native Argentina?

Before the turn of the last century, Argentina was one of the 10 richest countries on earth. It was also a magnet for immigrants, many of whom joined the Catholic Church.

Today, it is firmly in the third world camp, despite being rich in resources and sparsely populated. Capitalism did not do that to Argentina, socialism did.

Pope Francis may be a fine man and a genuinely decent man. But if his prescription to inequality is really more socialism, then he's an economic idiot.

11
posted on 12/12/2013 7:20:56 AM PST
by Vigilanteman
(Obama: Fake black man. Fake Messiah. Fake American. How many fakes can you fit in one Zer0?)

Any clegyman nominated for Man of the Year by Time has to have a lot of problems.

This current Pope is a product of neo-marxist “liberation” theology. At a time when Christianity need a poweful advocate for Christian moral values and a warrior against militant Islam, the College of Cardinals gave us a recycled crypto-marxist.

If you read the book of Acts, the early believers sold everything they had and shared their wealth, but no one directed them to do so, only one account of (Godly)punishment was recorded because the two in question lied to the apostle and the Holy Spirit about what they had, not that they had anything or not.....

Equalizing wealth means that those who are successful are punished at the expense of those who won’t, can’t or don’t have the drive to succeed; net result is only the sharing of misery, not the sharing of wealth.

The good Pope needs to read the parables of the sowers and the vineyard workers, and the investment guys in the gospels. Ain’t no sharing being done there, from the words of Christ Himself...

Stick to the social issue, Holy Father, I humbly request. This notion of one limited pie that we all carve up is so poisonous and it is getting really old. Those who generate wealth and earn big salaries didn’t take the money from anyone. They created that wealth....they baked more pies that didn’t exist prior. With that great wealth in most cases comes jobs and opportunities for others and individual charity follows. The next natural disaster that happens will be followed up with millions of donations from the “greedy” wealthy Americans as usual.

As a Catholic, I generally like this Pope, but I would love to have a one on one conversation with him. I would like to ask him a question: “Our daughter has always attended private Catholic schools, to which we have paid tuition. She is about to attend a private Catholic high school next year, where her tuition will more than double (~$8500). Should we pull her out of Catholic school, and give that money to the poor—for whom in the big picture, the amount would not lift them out of poverty, nor would it change their lives much?”

21
posted on 12/12/2013 7:29:22 AM PST
by Lou L
(Health "insurance" is NOT the same as health "care")

The pope fails to make any genuine distinction between Western poverty (bad enough) and the poverty of the Third World (unimaginably terrible). But is it really true that absolute autonomy of markets and financial speculation are the driving reasons for poverty and inequality? People in places such as Congo, Burundi and Mozambique live under corrupt authoritarian regimes where crippling poverty has a thousand fathers  none of them named capitalism. The people of Togo do not suffer in destitution because of some derivative scheme on Wall Street or the fallout from a tech IPO.

I'm feeling lonely here, but the Pope is correct about the greed-excessive salaries and bonuses situation. Is anyone talking about policies in the US that would make it viable for people to start and grow small businesses? About bailout money that went totally to the elite? About the global banking schemes that enrich the wealthy? About wars that are manipulated to happen, using Muslims as willing tools to destabilize the status quo?

The global elite is becoming even further removed from everyone else. The solution, though, isn't easy. Global manipulation and bloated national governments are going to have to collapse first.

Physician, heal thyself. Let Pope Francis call upon members of his faith to practice charity as he recommends. Salvation, the real concern of faith leaders, is accomplished person by person, not nation by nation. So let him call upon the highly-compensated members of the Catholic Church to stand up, donate their “excess” and show the world how they can be a shining light in a world of darkness. Let him begin with politicians, celebrities, professional athletes, trust fund babies, charity leaders, etc. and see how they react.

Pope Francis said in the first peace message of his pontificate that huge salaries and bonuses are symptoms of an economy based on greed and inequality and called again for nations to narrow the wealth gap. He attacked the "widening gap between those who have more and those who must be content with the crumbs", calling on governments to implement "effective policies" to guarantee people's fundamental rights, including access to capital, services, educational resources, healthcare and technology.

huge salaries and bonuses are symptoms of an economy based on greed and inequality and called again for nations to narrow the wealth gap.

This from a man who lives in one of the luxurious palaces in the world. I doubt he does his own cooking, shopping for bargains, etc., like those of us he accuses of being "greedy" do. He hasn't been pope long and I'm already kind of tired of him.

34
posted on 12/12/2013 7:35:38 AM PST
by from occupied ga
(Your government is your most dangerous enemy)

Stealing wealth from others, through fraud or force, is not profit, but theft (an initiation of force). Whether that theft is called a mugging, welfare, or voluntary taxation [a contradiction in terms], it is still theft and is always evil. Theft, like loss, is destruction; trade, like profit, is creation. To pursue profit is to pursue creation. It is an act of virtue and not a vice.

Your profit is the symbol and reward for the value of your creation, as judged by the minds of others who have freely-given given their wealth to you in exchange for it. Do not let the leftist intellectuals who infect our universities persuade you from thinking otherwise. In truth, it is those altruists who condemn the profit motive, who are guilty of evil.

Give Francis a break, Catholics! Scripture is full of warnings about wealth. Oh, here’s one for the “faith without works is dead” crowd:

“Now listen, you rich people, weep and wail because of the misery that is coming on you. 2Your wealth has rotted, and moths have eaten your clothes. 3Your gold and silver are corroded. Their corrosion will testify against you and eat your flesh like fire. You have hoarded wealth in the last days. 4Look! The wages you failed to pay the workers who mowed your fields are crying out against you. The cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord Almighty. 5You have lived on earth in luxury and self-indulgence. You have fattened yourselves in the day of slaughter.a 6You have condemned and murdered the innocent one, who was not opposing you.”

...yet the Pope instead is making "share the wealth" speeches which play right into Obama's hand

And repeatedly so. Lately it's been the same drumbeat of "sharing the wealth." That message is fine so long as it's voluntary... but this Pope sounds more like an advocate of "soak the rich" socialist economic policies.

47
posted on 12/12/2013 7:45:39 AM PST
by ScottinVA
(Obama is so far in over his head, even his ears are beneath the water level.)

from a misguided belief that high salarys for a small group of people (compared to the whole) is (a) at the expense of greatly higher salaries for everyone else, (b) a major factor in the cost of goods, (c) means that what everyone needs in life costs more than it should - all of which are economic nonsense

I wonder what kind of "policies" the Pope envisions to "guarantee access" to capital, services, healthcare etc.

In a perfect world, there would be someone perfect to evenly spread the wealth. In this country it's best to let those who earn the wealth divide it as they see fit.

Now take heaven and hell. People are divided by giving them their just deserts. Those who were evil and violated God's law get the punishment. People who were good get to go to heaven. There is no mention of equally dividing the rewards of devoting your life to God with the evil people who chose to not apply their efforts to God.

I think of it as heaven and hell here on earth. You reap what you sow. With charity for those who through no fault of their own find themselves in need.

50
posted on 12/12/2013 7:51:18 AM PST
by oldbrowser
("From each according to their ability, to each according to their needs" .....Marx)

Disclaimer:
Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual
posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its
management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the
exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.